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COMPUTER BITS BY JASON COLE Customising the Windows 95 Start Menus You don’t have to put up with your Start Menu the way it is. It’s easy to rearrange it just the way you want, so that it’s more convenient to use. We show you how. In Windows 95, the Start Menu is the focus point for launching programs. As you probably know, Windows 95 utilises shortcuts extensively. These shortcuts aren’t the actual program but a street sign for the computer so that it knows where to go to run the program. We usually put our own shortcuts on the Desktop along with often-used files but you can’t overdo it otherwise the Desktop can get a bit crowded. A better and less confusing approach is to launch lesser-used pro- grams from the Start button. This is located on the lefthand side of the Taskbar which itself is usually located at the bottom of the screen. You don’t have to have it at the bottom of the screen, by the way. If you want it at the top of the screen instead (or along one side), just drag it to its new location using the mouse. But back the Start button and its associated menus. One of the problems here is that as each new program is installed, it adds one or more new shortcuts to the Programs section of the Start Menu. Sometimes, even shortcuts to “readme” files are added which means that, over a period of time, your Start Menu can become quite cluttered. I’ve even seen cases where a Start Menu occupied virtually the entire screen when the wanted program was buried several layers deep. And that’s another problem. Often, it would be more con­venient to have a particular program near the front of the Start Menu so that you don’t have to drill down to get at it. Equally, it would be better if other less-used programs were further up the back, so that they were out of the way, Well, the good news is that you don’t have to put up with your Start Menu the way it is. You can easily rearrange it and even delete unwanted shortcuts from it, so that it is less clut­ tered and easier to use. Those “readme” file shortcuts are prime candidates for the Recycle Bin, for example. Let’s rearrange things Fig.1: you get to this dialog box by clicking Start, Settings, Taskbar. Alternatively, you can right click the Taskbar and select Properties. Fig.2: select the Start Menu Programs tab and then click the Advanced button to open an Explorer like window of the Start Menu folder. Before starting, the first thing to realise is that the entries in the Start Menus simply mirror the shortcuts in the Start Menu folder and its sub-folders. The Start Menu folder, by the way, is automatically created when Windows 95 is installed. You can rearrange the Start Menu by using Explorer but the correct method is to use the Start Menu Wizard. To get to the Wizard, click the Start button, then go to Settings and select Taskbar. This will bring up the Taskbar Properties dialog box – see Fig.1. Select the Start Menu Programs tab, October 1997  53 cuts around. Don’t do this in a haphazard manner though – instead, the Start Menu folder should be organised so that it makes sense to you and so that it is more convenient to use. If you use a particular program quite often, then don’t put it six folders down. Feel free to experiment because you are not going to lose any programs or the Start button. At worse, you can only lose the shortcut to a program and new shortcuts are easy to create. To move a shortcut or folder, just left click on what you want to move, drag it to where you want it to go, and let go of the mouse button. And that’s it – the next time you click the Start button and go through the various menus, the item will appear in its new location. Fig.3: once the Explorer window of the Start Menu is open, you can rearrange the various menus simply by dragging the shortcuts around. Fig.4: you can create a new folder or shortcut by first selecting the folder that will hold it in the lefthand pane of the Explorer, then right clicking the righthand pane. It is then a matter of selecting either Folder or Shortcut from the drop-down menus. Tip: Old Programs & Long File Names When installing an old Windows 3.1x program in Windows 95, you may find that it cannot find or accept “Program Files” as a folder name. That is because the old programs do not understand anything other than the 8.3 character format. To overcome this, you have to use the 8.3 name for Program Files which then click the Advanced button (Fig.2). You will now see an Explorer-style window as shown in Fig.3. However, unlike a standard Explorer window, 54  Silicon Chip is “Progra~1”. Any Windows 95 long file names will be seen as xxxxxx~1. exe, xxxxxx~.txt or xxxxxx~.doc, etc. Note that the prefix is the same but the beginning is only the first six char­acters then ~1 or ~2 or ~3, etc, depending on how many programs start with the same first six characters. this only shows the Start Menu folder which is exactly what we want. You can now rearrange your Start Menus by simply moving the short- Adding new folders Creating new folders is a little different. If you want to create a folder called “Games” in the “Programs” folder, for example, you first click on the “Programs” folder in the lefthand panel. This selects the folder that you want to create the new folder in. You now go to the righthand pane (which lists the contents of the Programs folder) and click the right mouse button on a vacant space. This brings up a small options panel. Go to the New option and then select the Folder option from the drop-down list – see Fig.4. A new folder will now appear at the bottom of the list of files. The first thing you do to this folder is change its name from “New Folder” to “Games” (or whatever name you want). The new folder is already set up to have its name changed so just start typing and press enter to accept the new name. You can now move any shortcuts or even other folders into this new folder, or just the games you like to play the most. If necessary, you can create your own shortcuts and place them in this folder. These shortcuts are created in exactly the same way as for a standard Explorer box or on the Desktop. To create a new shortcut in the Start Menu, first go to the left window and select the folder that will hold the new short­cut. This done, right click in the right window as before and then select New and Shortcut from the resulting drop-down menus. A new window will then appear asking for a command – see Fig.5. Fig.5: when you create a new shortcut, this window appears and you have to type in the command line for the program. Note that you must include the path. The command line that you enter here is simply the program that you want the shortcut to point to. Note that you must in­clude the path; eg, c:\games\doom2\doom2.exe (for the games program Doom 2). You then press the Next button to bring up the window shown in Fig.6, into which you can type the name of the shortcut. Note that this window will come up with a default which shows the name of the program, in this case doom2. exe. You can change this to whatever you want (eg, DOOM II the Awesome Game), as this is only the name of the shortcut and in no way affects the program itself. Now press the Next button and your next task will be to choose an icon. Finally, press Finish to make the Fig.6: the next window lets you type in a name for the shortcut. You can type in any name you like to replace the default which will be the name of the program. Fig.7: arrange your menus in a logical fashion so that they are convenient to use. Shortcuts to readme files are logical candidates for the Recycle Bin. new shortcut appear in the folder. If it appears in the wrong place, don’t worry – all you have to do select it and drag it into the correct folder. And that’s all you need to know to rearrange your Start Menu. The best way to learn is to have a go, so why SC not get started? THE “HIGH” THAT LASTS IS MADE IN THE U.S.A. Model KSN 1141 The new Powerline series of Motorola’s 2kHz Horn speakers incorporate protection circuitry which allows them to be used safely with amplifiers rated as high as 400 watts. This results in a product that is practically blowout proof. Based upon extensive testing, Motorola is offering a 36 month money back guarantee on this product should it burn out. Frequency Response: 1.8kHz - 30kHz Av. 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